Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Neal Huntington had a busy week in Bradenton, FL with the MLB Draft but flew back into town to meet with some reporters and answer some questions.
On the temptation to trade given pitching inconsistencies: “If you want to get involved now, there is a dramatic over-price, so our challenges have been all-over-the-map, which has made it so difficult. Any one of our five starters have had a good stretch and a not-so-good stretch. Almost all of our relievers have had a tough outing or two somewhere along the way. If it was one guy, it would be a heck of a lot easier for us. I need to do some things better this summer to help this club. We have to have a better off-season as a big picture as we go forward. We like the talent we have, and we feel we can get some guys back on track, and the big part is getting (manager Clint Hurdle) back to the ability to use the relievers when he wants to and not when he has to. We’ve not been able to do that for a five, six or seven game stretch all season.”
On Gerrit Cole’s injury (he left Friday’s game with right triceps tightness): “Still working through gathering information and thoughts on what is our best course of action. Any time a starter leaves a start early, it’s awfully tough to envision him taking the mound again in five days. If we did put him on the disabled list, he would only miss two starts because of the off day. We respect that Gerrit wants the ball and wants to compete, but we want him to make 30 starts this year, and if we can knock this out in 15 days, we might be better served. We’re not there yet, but his next start is certainly in doubt. It’s almost certainly not going to happen.”
On how quickly catcher Francsico Cervelli’s injury, a broken bone in his left hand, was assessed: “When Francisco took the swing and how he responded, I could see how TT (Todd Tomczyk) was poking around the hand, we had a strong inclination it was hamate. We worked through a backup catcher option list from the day (catching prospect) Elias Diaz got hurt. We targeted and tracked guys. When Erik (Kratz) became available, we talked about signing him and bringing him to Triple-A with us, but we didn’t think we would have an opportunity for him at the major league level. We wanted to continue (prospect) Jacob Stallings’s development. We called the Angels, and Erik had an out June 15. The Angels did a professional thing, and not long after we identified one of our top targets, he was available, and we decided to make a move and bring Erik in. He knows us and is familiar with the program. He knows how to do things well.”
On Cervelli’s injury: “This was one swing. The only healing process is to take it out. And it happens. It’s unfortunately part of the game. Sometimes it gets missed because the pain will be diagnosed as wrist pain or shown on a different part of the hand or wrist. The guys did a great job of recognizing the hamate immediately and ran the right scans, and it was a pretty obvious diagnosis. Francisco came in and had the surgery as soon as he could. He already on the path to rehab and recovery.” (Cervelli had surgery Saturday.)
How serious of an option Jacob Stallings was: “The bottom line is that we just felt Erik Kratz, what he could do defensively and the threat with the bat, was the best option for us. In Jake’s case, he had a great spring training and showed well. We talked about him for a long time as the internal option as the (Elias) Diaz injury came out. We recognized that Erik was our best option, and it allows Jake to continue to develop. Why we didn’t go get Erik before when he was released was we wanted Jake to have the opportunity to develop, and little did we know not many days after we would need a catcher at the major league level.”
On Elias Diaz’s injury timetable: “It’s seven to nine weeks from the surgery date, and we are about three weeks out. Diaz is probably looking at a return later than Cervelli, if all goes well.”
On righty pitching prospect Chad Kuhl: “He’s been pounding the zone with a heavy sinker low to mid 90’s. The slider has gotten better, the changeup has gotten better. We’re at a tough stretch right now with Chad with three tough starts, but overall it’s been a very encouraging season for him. We could’ve sent this man on his way with a trade. He might be the name we get asked about more than anybody once they get into realistic names. We’ve liked him for a long time, and guys have been able to keep him because they think he can really help us at the major league level be it as a starter or fall back at a reliever. We are going to do everything we can to develop this young man as a starter; we believe he can do it.”
Image credit: Matt Slocum/Associated Press
